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July 18, 2005

G92: Devil Rays 3, Red Sox 1

One unearned run -- one -- against a team who was 20 games out of first place. Three hits -- two of them by 9th-place (shouldn't even be in the lineup) hitter Alex Cora. The other hit was a first-inning single by Edgar Renteria. The last 19 Red Sox batters did not get a hit. Boston drew seven walks, but did nothing with them.

The Left Field Wall Scoreboard Guy was a better manager than Terry Francona, at least last night. After Green walked in the sixth -- bases loaded, two outs -- Dave Wallace paid a visit to Miller on the mound. Manny Ramirez ducked into the Monster (to pee?). As he did, Scoreboard Guy removed the #52 (Miller) from next to the Boston linescore.

It was premature. Miller stayed in -- and actually started pitching before Manny returned to his position -- and gave up a two-run single to Gathright. Which broke the 1-1 tie and gave Tampa a 3-1 lead. ... Shoulda listened to Scoreboard Guy.

With the humidity and heat index at oppressive levels last night, Manny Ramirez [stats, news] repeatedly retreated inside the Green Monster's manually operated scoreboard during breaks in the action to take advantage of the minor relief provided by an oscillating fan. - Boston Herald

The way to look at this is that the Sox have been through their worst stretch while the Yankees have been hot and they still just are a half game out. Another Yankee losing streak is coming (because they can't pitch or field, and won't score 11 every night) and the Sox have actually fixed a lot of holes. Now if the manager will just stop throwing away games so he won't hurt the feelings of .170 batting utility infielders, the Sox can get around to making Dan S's prediction come true.